We laughed, we cried, we laughed and cried about Eric Hosmer. Take off your homemade aluminum hat that you wear so aliens can’t hear your thoughts and think back to March. You had that argument with your mom and you ran out of the house screaming, “I wish you were Evan Longoria!” Then when he went to the DL, you ran back into your house and screamed, “I love you Mom, can I move back into the basement?!” Then you streamed Philip Humber for his perfect game and you thought that this was a great time to change your hummingbird tattoo to a Humberbird tattoo complete with his likeness. Then at the All-Star Break, you thought about how you’ve had no life for the last three months, but the All-Star Break ended a few days later and it didn’t bother you anymore. Then you took a trip to the grocery store with your fantasy team jersey that had 24 different team mascots on it and someone thought you were Gaylord Perry and you punched them in the mouth because you hadn’t spoken to a human being in almost 6 weeks. Then as Miguel Cabrera won the Triple Crown, you remembered why you love this game. After all, Miggy is the first player since Carl Yastrzemski in 1967 and the heaviest Triple Crown winner since Seattle Slew in 1977. Then as that excitement wore off, you sat there and thought about how it’s as good a time as any to re-insert yourself into the real world… Well, as soon as the fantasy basketball season is over. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

Craig Kimbrel – Closed out game #162 with a ‘Kimbrel’ (1 IP, 0 ER, 3K). Ends the year with 42 SV, 116 K, 1.01 ERA, a 0.65 WHIP, and a top 25 finish on the Fantasy Baseball Player Rater. He struck out more in 62 2/3 IP than 4 different pitchers who pitched 180 IP (Zito, Richard, Guthrie, Alvarez). If Joe Torre was his manager, he might’ve challenged Nolan Ryan’s single season record for strikeouts (383).

A.J. Burnett – 5 2/3 IP, 4 ER against a Braves team that pulled all of their regulars after one at-bat. His first name may be Apple Juice, but yesterday I felt like The Little Rascals yelling “Aw, applesauce!”

Bryan LaHair – 2-for-5, 2 RBIs and a homer to end the season on a high note. For any of you who fell into a coma for the past 5 months and didn’t update your lineup, congrats on the homer!

Travis Wood – 6 1/3 IP, 1 ER, 8 baserunners, 4 Ks vs. the Astros, but Altuve sat out, so this was the Astros’ B lineup. The Astros’ B lineup used to come with a Killer B’s poster with Bagwell, Biggio and Berkman. Now the Astros have a poster with the Illest B Lineup that just reads, “Support Euthanasia.”

Ryan Zimmerman – 1-for-3 and his 25th homer. Or his 22nd homer after I dropped him, which came after he gave me 200 ABs of a .236 average and crizzap. This makes me wonder what Hosmer would’ve done if I only dropped him. He might’ve hit 40 homers and explained to me what the hell Tree of Life was about.

Justin Upton – 3-for-4, 18th steal. The Diamondbacks owner said it was highly unlikely that Upton would remain with the team next year. Maybe they can trade him for B.J. and then they can help reunite their parents. Or maybe that’s The Parent Trap.

Cliff Lee – 6 IP, 3 ER, 8 baserunners, 7 Ks. Fitting he ends the year with a QS and a loss. He ends the year with 6 wins, 21 QS, and a compulsion to poop in hero rolls, cover it in cheese whiz, and hand them out to the Phillie offense.

Ike Davis – 2-for-3, 2 runs and his 32nd homer. Statement: I think I’m gonna draft Ike Davis on every team next year. Reasoning: 1st base is gonna be kinda ugly, so for the first time in the history of Razzball we’re gonna be filling our stockings with 1st basemen later in the draft. Speaking of which, in that picture of me, I’m wearing stockings and no pants. Keep that image with you all offseason!

Ruben Tejada – 3-for-5 and zero runs. He ends the season with 53 runs. For a leadoff hitter. A leadoff hitter with a .289 average. I’m officially the only one amazed by this.

Jose Reyes – 1-for-4 with his 4oth steal. I told you; Reyes leaves no empty personal accomplishment on the cutting room floor. Fun Fact! Jose Reyes once drove seventy minutes out of his way to Zzyzx, California so he could beat his 12-year-old niece in The Alphabet Game.

Fernando Rodney – Recorded his 48th save and ended the season with a 0.60 ERA and the lowest ERA ever for a reliever with at least 60 innings. That would make a world class porn star do a spit take.

Jeremy Hellickson – 5 1/3 IP, 2 baserunners, 0 ER, 6 Ks as the Rays pitching held O’s hitting to five hits over the last 18 innings. Looks like Selig screwed up the O’s deal with the devil when he had regular season play go into October.

Evan Longoria – 3-for-4 with three solo homers. Just call him, Octongoria. Has now hit 5 homers in his last six at-bats in Game 162’s. Longoria said he approaches game 162 the same way he approaches every game. He shuts “I Got You Babe” off the radio, ducks away from this annoying guy who keeps trying to selling him insurance, steps in a puddle and reports to the stadium.

Dan Johnson – Hit 3 homers yesterday. He was also a part of the home run barrage last year for the Rays on the last game of the season. Maybe Dan Johnson’s manager should give him a pink slip before each game, so he hits like every game is his last.

Robinson Cano – 4-for-4, 3 runs, 6 RBIs and 2 homers as he adds an exclamation mark to “the worst excuse ever for complaining about a draft when ESPN crashed and I ended up with Cano instead of Votto.”

Curtis Granderson – 2-for-4, 4 RBIs and two homers to add a bigger question mark to whether he was worth a 2nd round pick.

Adrian Beltre – 3-for-4, 1 RBI as he ends the year 95/36/102/.321/1, giving you everything you could’ve wished for (within reason; he’s not going to get that cute girl’s number for you). That’s now three straight years of solid numbers. I’ll be going over all positions in the recaps that are starting now that the season is over, but just wanted to say that Beltre scares me a lot more than he should. I know it’s not a suppressed childhood trauma either because I like Brandon Belt.

Brandon Moss – 2-for-4, 3 RBIs. At the All-Star Break, Oakland had lost more games than it had won, carried one of the lowest payrolls in all of baseball, lost pitchers to injuries and suspensions, was counting on the return of Manny Ramirez and, the whole while, Billy Beane was hitting the weights in their clubhouse. They rallied behind a cast of characters that wouldn’t be believable even if they were played by a fat Jonah Hill and Brad Pitt. Coco Crisp wasn’t a table setter, he’s a breakfast cereal; the Cuban import, Yoenis couldn’t stay healthy, taking advantage of our non-free healthcare, the only trade they could afford was for Stephen Drew, Seth Smith wasn’t even a tharter before this year and Brandon Moss and Chris Carter were fingercuffing 1st base. All they had left was a bunch of rookie pitchers… A bunch of rookie pitchers that should’ve been running on fumes by September. Those rookie pitchers set a major league record by winning 53 games and the A’s climbed to the top of the toughest division in baseball. Yesterday, that A’s crowd was easily the most alive I’ve ever seen Oakland fans, aside from when they were doing The Bernie Lean. And that, over-the-internet friend, is baseball.

Just my luck.. I’ve been waiting ten years to finally hear someone say “the AL West is the toughest division in baseball,” a status that unfortunately will only last until the AAAAstros move in next season.

I did it! Took him out 8-2 in the end, in reality though it was much closer than that and was down to Cano carrying my offense and good starts from Latos, Moore and Iwakuma (most underrated starter this year).

Could I be alone in that im the only Razzball international winner (England)? Or has Steve or some other dude won any of his leagues.

Anyway winning the double (H2H and Roto), and there’s largely one man to thank, you Grey sir. Going out now but expect some diaquiris deposited into your Razzball account later! Thanks for the great year!

Thanks Grey, Rudy, et al as per usual. Great season. The podcast was a real success, IMO, and I look forward to seeing how that evolves in 2013.

Also, I realize nobody probably wants to think about the 2013 season now, but if any of the 2012 RCL league winners are interested in playing in a 2013 RCL Champions League, I will be commishing one next year. Shoot me an email ([email protected]) telling me you are interested as well as which league you played in this year, and you will go on a list and I will contact the first 11 people who email me next year when RCL signup time arrives. If someone doesn’t reply fairly quickly, I will move on down the list until we have 12 confirmed participants. Should be competitive, and that’s the bottom line for me. So let me know if you are interested.

@Grey, Yeah. VinWins commished both…so he’s my good luck charm. ;) We’ve been lucky in that both leagues were pretty competitive, and this year’s (Cracking the WHIP) was the more competitive of the two. Top to bottom a class league and a lot of fun.

I cried, and then cried some more. Was up 7-3 going into yesterday and conspired to lose 6-3. I probably jinxed it. At the same time I admittedly had no reason for even being in the finals and both of the teams in the 3rd place game would have destroyed me. I’ll count my fantasy blessings for this season!

Hey Grey, Rudy and the Razzball gang: I really enjoy your site and want to thank you for an amazing season of snarky analysis!

We are looking for some ace competition to take over 2 teams in my 20-team dynasty league. If you guys are at all interested in a very challenging free league post on the chat box at the proboards homepage:

Other Razzball devotees still reading at this time of year: you may just be right for this league too so please hit me up w/ contact info in the comments if you like what you see. Prospect knowledge a must!

@ Grey and the entire Razzball Staff. I want to thank you for the fantastic and extremely intertaining analysis you guys provided. Despite a horrible draft (filled with to be injured or expelled players), I managed a 4th place finish and was in the hunt til mid September. I have recommended your site to all the people I know (outside of my league). Thanks for the mammaries, uh oops memories!

gotta say thanks also to Rudy for the SON, advice and other stuff we probably don’t see here on a daily basis

great final roundup. yes, i did stream humber for his perfect game, but dropped him the next day before the tatoo parlor opened.

i posted a few q’s last week about era’s and whip. you probably don’t remember, but fyi i did the ghostbusters thing, crossed streams and pitched aj burnett and homer bailey against each other (combined 16 inn, 1 win, 0.5 era/whip) – which dropped my stats enough to gain 2 points.

also, picked up almost 30 sb in 30 days, due to evercab, aoki, rajai, gomez. SAGNOF!

but mostly it was, as vincent vega would say, the little things. picking up a player here and there for a few days, getting a good surprise pitcher like medlen, and getting good trade advice

thanks for everything!

p.s. when do you post in the offseason? does january Grey make an appearance, or do we wait for february Grey?

I would like to thank Razzball for the mostly good advice. I won my keeper league and am looking at Miggy, Cano, Trout, Pujols and Beltre going into next year. Too many pieces of good advice to list them all but picking up Trout and Medlen are the biggest two. I’m glad I pulled the trigger on Lincecum, Lawrie, and Heyward for Pujols and a draft pick next year…I’m glad it was Lawrie and not Beltre.

Again, a huge thanks goes out to the boys at Razzball. Can wait to repeat next year!!!!!

@Grey, 100+ Runs and Ribbies and 10 bags too. C’mon man you’re the original AVG is overrated gansta. If having an opinion on a fantasy baseball category can remotely be gangsta, which it can’t. And frankly I feel foolish using ‘gangsta’ in any context.

That off-season Granderson conversation had a lot of legs, internet fantasy guru buddy. I kind of look forward to rapping with you offseason when it’s a little sleepier in here.

@OaktownSteve, Yeah, I meant historically because only two other players ever hit 40 homers and had a SLG under 500, but I hear ya… His September made up for some valleys… BTW, someone had a A’s question below about San Jose, I thought you might know…

I just don’t think that the Vagiants are ever going to relent on San Jose. Then if you look around, there are no more cities without an MLB team that really have the resources in this economy ot build a park. And it’ll be tough for an ownership group to privately fund a whole ballpark.

So in a way, as much as Lew and the current ownership want to go, there’s really no where for them to go. I don’t think their on field performance can really influence the stadium issue either way.

The best hope is a white knight Oakland ownership group that convinces current ownership to give up on the dream of a new stadium and gets them to just sell.

It’s really tough though. Oakland only has 500k people and a lot of the suburban audience gets gobbled up by the Giants.

@Chris, That’s a tough one. I think the thing that drives Oaklanders crazy is Wolff doesn’t seem to give a damn about the community. He views the team purely as commodity and he seems to have actual contempt for the fans for having the inconvenient point of view that the team should stay.

I consider owning a professional franchise – particularly an MLB franchise, what with its preferential Federal status – as a public trust. If you don’t have the desire or resources to build a winning team for your town every year – EVERY – then you should be unceremoniusly kicked to the curb.

People like Loria, who take welfare from the league which they don’t reinvest, or folks like the Wilpons, who refuse to sell even though they are unable to dedicate the necessary time and resources to build a competitive team, or folks like Wolff, who alienates his fan base, are disgraces. No other word for it.

MLB needs to return to the time when the Commissioner of the league was a neutral party, not some gross travesty like Selig who’s idea of divesting from a team (Los Brewers) is to sell to his sister.

@Oaktown Steve – The Giants crying about San Jose reminds me of Peter Angelos and his boo-hoo-hooing about the Nats coming into “Orioles territory.” Keep in mind that this year was the first time in 15 years that the O’s have won more than 90 games, and keep in mind that Angelos has hundreds of milliosn to play with, but was still too bruised and pissed off by Albert Belle (!) to invest in his own team. What hubris. What a prick.

These guys dont deserve the privilege (and its a privilege!) of owning an MLB team.

@Chris, There’s this part of Oakland on the water called Jack London Square. Lot of pretty nice office space. Whole area seems kind of under utilized. I’ve always thought it would be a great Silicon Valley alternative for one of the big corporate “campus” facilities. Google, Apple, something like that. If you could find a corporate partner who would also buy the naming rights to a new stadium there you’d have an excellent opportunity for mixed use development (residential, light commercial).

Grey, I did it! Thanks for the pitching advise. To you, Rudy and the razzball gang thanks for a great season. I recommended you guys to everyone that doesn’t participate in my league. Have a great offseason guys.

@Grey, right and top draft picks are a hot commodity in our league. We keep a lot of players so after Rd 2 it’s almost a crap shoot to find good value. This year with two 1st rd picks I nabbed Bumgarner and Posey. 2nd Rd I took Kendrick, 3rd Rd Putz… drops off pretty quick.

Nah, I wouldn’t give spoilers… Like Betsy herself gave, that I don’t remember anymore and I like it that way… Cougs and I are actually quickly running through Boss right now before Breaking Bad… It’s very good, not great…

Thanks Grey, Rudy, and the rest of the team for another year of the best fantasy sports coverage online or in print. I attribute much of my success this year to your timely, sharp, and hilarious analyses. Enjoy the post/offseason, and have a couple on me.

Incredible season, Grey and Rudy. You guys are my heroes. I won my league for the first time in the 7 years we have been playing. A league that has been won by only 3 managers ever, two of which have baseball minds like rain man. In-fucking-credible. Thanks for the advice, and more importantly, thanks for the great writing.

Grey, I’m sure you have this down somewhere, but what did you think of “THE MASTER”? I wanted to love it but got bored during the last 3rd. Also, if you haven’t seen Herzog’s “Stroyceck”, watch it. Fucking sick.

@jack torrance, No problem, glad you won, congrats! The Master was PT’s weakest film since PDL. It needed a stronger story. It meandered at times and not in a fun Magnolia steadicam kind of meandering… Cool, will have to check that movie out…

Grey, Rudy and Minions: Just wanted to thank you for all your hard work this year. I paid attention and got paid as a result – won both my money leagues and came back from a dreadful first two months to take 3rd in my RCL. Kudos!

By the way, awesome shout out to Oaktown. I was there Monday and Wednesday. Pretty sure Wednesday was my 30th game this year. Got my post season locked in. Best baseball season ever.

There is a special vibe to Oakland, man, that is like no place else. Blue collar, middle class, rich, poor, hills and flats, black, white, Mexican, Chinese and everything else, love and hate, good weather and tons of weed…

@Grey, Yeah we have season tix. Not the fully 80 games. The “mini-season” plan as they call it. Gave us on option on our same seats for the full post-season strip. A’s games are great (usually) for my kids. Not too crowded, super fun atmosphere. We’re leaving the kids home for the playoffs though. Thought we might like to actually spend the whole game in our seats, not trying to wipe ice cream off a 5 year old and feed strained pears to a baby.

@Grey, Mrs. Oaktown is THE A’s fan. She grew up dirt poor in a rough part of this town in the East Bay called El Cerrito. She and her twin sister tapped into this thing where the got A’s tickets from the public library for reading a certain number of books. So when the two of them were about 10 years old, they used to hop on the train and go to games by themselves. There were, um, not highly supervised.

I love baseball and I’ve adopted the A’s and love them, but just like somebody born outside the tribe, I can never really be an A’s lifer like her.

I’m from San Diego and then LA. Moved up here in 92. Discovered that baseball is a sport where you really want to root for the locals. Going to games, listening on the radio and reading the local paper are kind of the whole thing. Been an A’s fan since. I love Oaktown in that way you can only love the place where you choose to live. Different from loving (and in some cases hating) the place where you’re from.

@OaktownSteve, Hey man, just wanted to say how glad I am that I was wrong about the A’s in the offseason. When they sold off all of their pitching and only added Reddick and Cespedes on offense, I thought it would be a long year for them. Credit to Beane, Melvin, and all of the players for stepping up big time this year. They’ve been fun to watch – now hopefully they can make a WS run.

@Big Magoo, Melvin has been so impressive. You have to trace the A’s resilience back to him and Chili Davis and Curt Young. There were so many times it seemed like they were going to fold. Lost two in Detroit in Sept. and then pulled one out on get away day. Samething in NY after two heartbreakers. Lost the first one at Texas at the tail end of tht brutal road trip and then fought back for a split and the rest is history.

The Detroit match up is kind of scary. They are really built for that 5 game series with Verlander on turn for game 1. A’s haven’t played that well against them.

@OaktownSteve, Detroit is scary. If Verlander does his thing and one of Fister/Sanchez/Scherzer steps up, they’ll be a tough out. The A’s have been defying the odds all season though, so it should be interesting.

@Big Magoo, Jarod Parker has not shirked the big stage. Pitched great in New York and matched CC pretty much pitch for pitch save one mistake. I think they’ll end up running Brett Anderson out for game 2. Anderson is possible for game 1 still. He’s go the ace stuff. The wild card. Milone will get a home start for sure with his splits. Hoping the A’s can stay close enough to exploit their advantage in the ‘pen.

@OaktownSteve, I agree that Anderson is the wild card (and their best pitcher), but how healthy is he? When he’s on, he’s capable of shutting down anyone, but he needs to be close to 100% to do it to Cabrera, Fielder, and co. Also have to worry about the rust factor with him. The A’s biggest (and possibly only) advantage is the bullpen so they need to keep the games close past the 7th. On paper, it’s a tough matchup but they’ve been up to the challenge the entire year. We’ll see what happens.

@Big Magoo, On the other hand, Verlander hasn’t been quite as dominant in the post season as he has been regular season. The A’s put very good ABs on him in Sept and I think he threw like 120 pitches in 6 innings. If they could some how get him in game one, then those 3 games in Oaktown start to loom large.

@OaktownSteve, Melvin’s a great manager, always thought that when he was in AZ. Shouldn’t have left them then (look where they are now) and I knew once he joined Oakland he would be there for a good while. Great appointment by Billy.

Office friend of mine from the bay area stuck in the office. Hooked him up with my MLB account so he could listen. His dad called him after the win. He was tearing up and completely speechless. Baseball really is an amazing thing. But not as amazing as football!

I’m gonna miss reading razzball. You are my best over the internet friends. I wouldn’t have been able to win my fantasy league without you guys (I came within one K of being tied for 1st or 2 Ks from 2nd, thanks for scratch Mark B. Ozzie!). Anyways, when are y’all gonna have those 2013 rankings up, tomorrow right? Love you guys keep up the good work.
Sincerely,
DTB

Thanks for a great read every morning! I shared your pain with Zimmerman this year and sold low on him just before his infamous Cortisone Shot. It’s just impossible to know when a hitter is about to bust out of a slump… I guess I need to be more patient next year.

Yesterday, Steve wondered what market inefficiencies Beane had exploited now. Without any evidence, I posited that the rest of the league might be overemphasizing OBP. I still don’t have any idea if that is true, but it’s interesting that the Orioles seem to be in a somewhat similar position: low OBP, low AVG sluggers that were mostly cast-offs from other teams. Also, perhaps coincidental, but interesting enough: OAK and BAL traded RPs for cast-offs/old prospects that have worked out excellently, but still have benefited from good seasons from their respective bullpens (I’m ignoring the initial OAK closer BS, I know).

Guess anything is possible but it’s hard to see a way to win is to avoid OBP… Both the O’s and A’s had performances from pitchers that there was no way of expecting… Maybe it’s just me but I don’t buy that the clubs saw something in their pitchers that no one else saw… I think they just got the best case scenario from multiple factors…

Yeah, I always liked Gammons…Plus he can play Arroyo under the table… I’m so hoping the O’s beat the Rangers, but I don’t get how one game playoff really is fair after 162 games, if it helps baseball, I’m fine with it, it just feels like everything baseball is not…

@Grey, I agree that it was a combination of the best case scenario from multiple factors. What I meant about overvaluing OBP was not that they would actively avoid players with good OBP, but that they would not discount a bad-OBP player’s value as much as other teams might.

I see… I just thought of how brilliant Beane is… He made like OBP was a major issue for ten years, hired Michael Lewis, made sure every team knew about it…Then did his real Moneyball tactics and went for low OBP and inexperienced pitchers… It’s a long con and David Mamet will be directing the sequel with Ricky Jay…

Meant to pop on earlier but got busy at work. Wanted to say a great big thank you Grey & Rudy. Checks are in the mail and when they arrive, you’ve got a couple rounds of daiquiris coming your way.

I did 5 leagues this year. I won my RCL league, I won my Y! 12-team Pro league, I won a 12 team H2H points league and I won an 8-team NL only league. The only league I didn’t win was a 14-team H2H points league where I drafted Votto and Longoria 1-2. Too much to overcome. Coincidentally, it was also the only league I didn’t own Mike freaking Trout. What a stud.

I’d like to thank you for pushing to pick up Trout early, for tips on playing Y! format vs. ESPN, for recommending to wait on pitching and grab guys like MadBum, Gio, Latos (I didn’t drop him), and Beachy (while he lasted). SAGNOF was huge in the year of the closerlypse. The stream-a-nator was clutch down the stretch in the RCL and in my H2H league. Rudy recommended going OF early in a Y! league and I ended up with Braun, Giancarlo, McCutchen and Bruce. Then added Trout off waivers. That, with the pitching I drafted was enough to take down the league. 4 championships is pretty ridiculous and I’m cherishing every one of them. I know it won’t always be this good. Thanks guys, looking forward to next year already and interested in your end of year write-ups as well. (Especially how the big money league panned out). Have a great offseason guys. Appreciate you.

Yeah, Saunders isn’t the guy I’d want facing the Rangers, but if the O’s can play a 8-7 game they could squeeze it out… No matter who their pitcher is they might need to enter a slugfest with the Rangers…

Thanks for your 1500 words a day for 6 months, Grey. Kept me entertained as I stumbled to second division finishes in both my leagues. See you next year. I’ll be sure not to draft Roy Halladay in the second round again. Idiot…

I love this site. you offer some great advice.
I was able to get 1st place in a 16 team keeper league, in my first time in the league!

we don’t have to decide until next spring, but if I had to pick 5 going into next season, who would be the top 5 out of these players?
– David Price.
– Billy Butler.
– Jimmy Rollins.
– Shin Soo Choo
– Manny Machado
– Miguel Montero
– Dan Uggla
– Yovani Gallardo

I read that Machado is a potential star of the future. do I pick him as a keeper over Montero or Uggla?